He's about 80 pounds, right where he should be. He's still a bit clumsy and actually earned a limp yesterday training. He's got all this leg and power, but doesn't know how to use it yet. Not without almost killing himself in the process. He's a swimmer though, that water was moving at a pretty good clip in that last pic. I'm confident he's going to be a great meat dog.

Pretty golden you have there. I've never met a golden I didn't like. Do you find her coat ices up quickly? My springers would always get their feathers iced up pretty quickly.

Pico is from a breeder in Connelsville who retired his last female. He's AKC, but nothing special from a hunt test perspective. The bitches other litters produced decent hunters and since a waterdog is, IMO, primarily produced from training efforts, it wasn't important. If I was going for double duty and wanted an upland dog, I might have considered the parents papers more. But, nose wasn't as important as temperment to me. His parents were both steady and well behaved, along with an older brother on the premises. I hate whining, shaking dogs that can't sit still. A field trialer and the jittery attitude would never work for me.

don taylor wrote:Do you find her coat ices up quickly? My springers would always get their feathers iced up pretty quickly.

She just turned 1 year a few days ago, didn't have her out last season, that said, yes, the fringes on her fur definitely ice up, but it's never seemed to bother her. I plan to have her in a vest during season.

Riverridge wrote:Nice looking Lab and Golden pups. Are they from local breeders?

Oakley is from Adirondac Goldens in Mexico, NY (northeast of Syracuse) right on Lake Ontario. I'd recommend Carol, the breeder, to anyone.

I gained an appreciation for Goldens and the calm demeaner that Don prefers after hunting with my brother's Golden that was just a year old the last week of the duck season. It is great to be in the blind with a dog that waits quietly to do her job and then explode with intensity when sent on a retrieve. I came away impressed with the breed watching her break through ice to complete the retrieves.

A dog that breaks early, a dog that whines, a dog that isn't controlled enough so it paces around the blind, a dog that has it's owner yelling all morning... I swear only skybusters can make a hunt more miserable than a poorly trained dog. They don't even have to be my dog or in my group to make it suck. I once heard a guy in L area at Pymie call his yellow lab 100 times in one hour. 'BUCK!' I still can hear him screaming for that damn dog. By noon, he was rowing around, calling out for his dog who he'd lost some time in the morning. I'll leave my dog at home or get rid of him before I'd ever put up with or be responsible for that.

To clarify, because that was kind of cold sounding... That was during the 04 opener. He was calling for his dog starting at 7! / He ended up finding him before check out back at the parking lot with another hunter.

Don, that same damn dog did the same thing in Geneva a couple times when I was there !! You would think that after happening a couple times he might try to restrain the dog. The second time in the same season I heard him calling BUCK..... BUCK...... BUCK, I thought you have to be kidding me, my dad and I had a good laugh about it !!!

Here's Pico, getting some air after launching off a dock. I'm considering entering him in the Junior division of a dock dog competition coming up in June. It's just for fun, but he's going far enough with little training he's past the novice division distances.